Aren’t lithos cheaper?

Here at The Actor’s Photo Lab, every now and then we get the question regarding our 8×10 photographic reproductions “Aren’t lithos cheaper?” One definition we found for the word cheap is “of poor quality, shoddy, worth relatively little”. So in that case, yes they are cheaper than photographic reproductions. When printing lithographs, your headshot is placed next to a bunch of other headshots on a large sheet and printed on a press using a dot pattern technique that usually has an unpredictable outcome of color and consistency. The photographic prints that are offered at The Actor’s Photo Lab are printed on state of the art photo processing equipment using the highest quality of photo paper to achieve a continuous tone image that is not only consistent on the original run, but every time you reprint. It’s like printing an original over and over again.

Lithos suddenly became popular because it was an inexpensive way to get color reproductions of your headshots but of course you had to get a minimum of 300 printed to see any real per piece savings. As technology advanced over the years the cost gap between printing black & white and color photographic prints decreased and eventually diminished. Today at the Actor’s Photo Lab you can get your color high quality photographic original prints at the fraction of the cost of printing 300 lithos.

We also realize with the digital age and almost every manager and agent submitting your photos online, that you will no longer need 300 prints of any headshot. At The Actor’s Photo Lab we now offer headshot reproductions as low as 10 quantity. With photographic prints we also have the ability to run a test print and make any adjustment necessary to get the perfect exposure and color balance. Unlike other labs around town here is no addition charge for color adjustment and a test print as this is a standard part of service that we offer with every reproduction job.

You spend a ton of money getting the best photographer and makeup artist not to mention your time. Now, don’t you think the question you should be asking is “Do I want to get my headshots printed on lithos?” Absolutely not!